Spooked by National Spot Exchange Ltd halting trading in "e-series" contracts, scrips of its promoter company Financial Technologies took a massive hit on the bourses on Tuesday.

The scrip of Financial Technologies promoted Multi-Commodity Exchange also continued its downward spiral.

Financial Technologies was trading at Rs 158.70, down 19.89 per cent in the afternoon trade on the NSE, while MCX was trading at Rs 330.90, down 10 per cent. The benchmark Nifty was trading at 5,535, down 2.65 per cent.

The exchange reportedly halted trading in e-series in anticipation of government notification ordering the halt as a precautionary measure.

e-series contracts

Under e-series contracts, retail investors can buy and sell commodities in demat form. This is a unique market segment which functions similar to the cash segment in equities, but offers commodities in the demat form in smaller denominations.

Following the clarification of the roadmap for payment settlement of Rs 5,600 crore outlined by Financial Tech promoter Jignesh Shah on Monday, the scrip had shown an improvement and closed up by 31 per cent at Rs 197.95 owing to short-covering.

However, MCX had hit its 52-week low on Monday to close at Rs 368.70.

The ban on e-series trade has led to a complete halt of operation on the NSEL platform as the exchange had suspended trading of all contracts other than e-series contracts on July 31.

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